Injections Offered for Joint Pain Relief

Types of steroid and viscosupplementation injections offered for osteoarthritis

Arthritis Relief Centers offer several types of injections for joint pain relief. The most common is a steroid injection that’s more commonly known as a cortisone injection. A corticosteroid is a powerful steroid-based anti-inflammatory effective at quickly reducing inflammation and subsequently pain.

In general, steroid injections vary in effectiveness based on the severity of the underlying condition being treated. Other options available include Amniotic Regenerative Injections, PRP, and HA (Viscosupplementation Injections) for knee arthritis.

Viscosupplementation refers to the various brands of hyaluronic acid preparations used to treat osteoarthritis of the knee joint. These treatments are not considered medications by the FDA, and they are typically sourced from either animal cartilage that’s rich in hyaluronic acid (like the rooster comb) or bacterially derived hyaluronic acid made in a laboratory.

HA injections were initially used to treat knee pain in racehorses starting in the 1950s. Studies began on humans in 1970s, and by the mid-1980s, doctors treated patients in Europe with knee pain related to osteoarthritis. Fidia Pharma, an Italian pharmaceutical company, was the first to gain FDA approval for Hyalgan in the United States. Such injections have been typically limited to the knee joint in the United States, but many research studies have shown it to be effective in multiple joints including the hip, shoulder, and TMJ joint.

There are more than 6 different FDA-approved brands of viscosupplements on the market today. Comparison studies have been performed that show that all are about nearly equal in effectiveness and that one brand is not superior to another.